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Isn’t that cover cute? Today, I’m happy to welcome Mark J. Grant to talk a little about his book, Lila: The Sign of the Elven Queen.

A Little Magic and a Lot of Growing Up

The world is seen through the eyes of a six year old girl who is progressing towards being seven. Each day is a new adventure as mama and papa try to guide Lila towards becoming a young lady. Her request, granted by her parents, to own an invisible dog sets the stage for the adventures that follow. A shiny and sparkly world is created for the reader to explore the realm of some of the invisible people from Iceland that now live in the cornerstones of downtown buildings in New York and in the boulders of Central Park.

Fluffy, Lila’s appropriately named invisible dog, turns out to be much more than he seems. The riddle is answered towards the end of the book as the invisible people thunderously applaud the result. There is a princess and a queen and a birthmark on Lila’s left forearm that leads young Lila to a throne of her own. You will find a sapling in “Boulder II, Castlerock” that is hurriedly growing it for her.

For me, it was a six month adventure outside the boundaries of Wall Street, where I usually live, and into the fabled lands of make believe. I have always imagined that our world is full of much more than meets the eye. In Lila I have opened the door to a realm past what can be seen. If you are ready for an adventure of a different sort then I invite you out of your house onto the road of a wondrous journey. The day is upon you.

Time to come out and play!

About Lila: The Sign of the Elven Queen:

Lila is a polite six-year-old girl who lives with her mama and papa in New York City. She has two cats, and would now like to have a dog–except dogs are not allowed in her apartment building. After thinking about it for awhile, Lila asks her parents if she can have an invisible dog. Her parents agree, and together they decide to name the dog Fluffy. On their way to the pet store to buy invisible supplies for the invisible dog, a black and white Aussie appears from around the corner and introduces himself to Lila, saying, “My name is Fluffy.”

In a series of fun adventures that follow, Fluffy introduces Lila and her family to the invisible people of Iceland, who live inside the boulders of Central Park and the cornerstones of New York City buildings. One day, the invisible people discover that the birthmark on Lila’s left forearm is the sign of their Elven Queen, and just as she turns seven, Lila is made a princess. Can anything be better than that?

About the author:

Mark J. Grant, a graduate of Occidental College, has been on Wall Street for thirty-seven years in various senior management positions. He has run capital markets for four investment banks and been on the boards of directors of four investment banks. Grant also writes “Out of the Box,” a commentary on the financial markets that is distributed daily to approximately 5,000 large money management institutions in forty-eight countries. He is the author of Out of the Box and onto Wall Street: Unorthodox Insights on Investments and the Economy (Wiley, 2011). Lila: The Sign of the Elven Queen is his first novel.